20th January, 2011
The Federal Government does not seem to be getting its priority right going by the absence of bread, one of the cheapest foods of the common man, from the tables of Nigerians since Monday.
Last week, the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria had threatened to embark on a three-day warning strike to press home their demand for government intervention over the rising cost of baking ingredients.
Chairman of the association, Prince Jacob Adejorin, said the strike and consequent increase in the price of bread became necessary because the bakers could no longer cope with the cost of producing the essential food item. They commenced the strike on Saturday.
By Monday, consumers began to feel the impact of the strike as the price of bread had increased yet nobody in government has said anything. Everybody is currently preoccupied with who gets what position to contest the April general elections to eventually rule over people whose welfare they have now ignored.
The common man is already apprehensive of a higher price for the essential food item. What used to be a fast and pocket-friendly food may become something only the wealthy can afford.
In November last year, the Federal Government lifted the ban on vehicles older than ten years, furniture, toothpicks, textile fabrics, lace and embroidered fabric among others while approving an import duty rate of 10 per cent as well as impose 10 per cent levy on health and energy drinks which had hitherto been excluded from import prohibition. But the government did not think of bread and the ingredients used in baking it.
Nobody has for a very long time remembered to think of the low income earner in Nigeria. Government should do something about the price of bread if it has the milk of human kindness in its breast. The price of food has been known to spark violent revolutions in other countries. Nigerians are going through enough stress in their daily lives and an increase in the price of bread is another unnecessary burden for the low income earner.
What sparked off the French revolution in 1789 and the consequent storming of the Bastille, a prison and symbol of ancient tyranny, was an increase in the price of bread. The insensitivity of the ruling class seems to have no limit. The import duty on wheat must be reduced to enable the low income earner put bread on the table for the family. Government cannot afford to trifle with something as essential as bread. Several experiments with alternatives such as corn has led nowhere. In other climes, an increase in the price of bread could have dire consequences, may be not here; but government must rise and address this problem before it is compounded by others.
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